1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical cable end connector which electrically connects with an electrical cable.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cable end connector usually has electrical contacts electrically interconnecting with both conductors of an electrical cable and electrical contacts of a complementary electrical connector to transmit signals therebetween. Chapter 6 of Universal Serial Bus Specification Revision 2.0, which is released by Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, NEC, and Philips on Apr. 27, 2000 and a hard copy of which is enclosed herewith, discloses one kind of cable end connector, Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable end connectors. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,210,216, 6,305,986 and 6,347,948 issued respectively on Apr. 3, 2001, Oct. 23, 2001 and Feb. 19, 2002 disclose USB cable end connectors in the two-port fashion. U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,035 issued on Jul. 27, 1999 discloses a complementary electrical connector mateable with a USB cable end connector.
As is known to all skilled in the pertinent art, Electromagnetic Interferences (EMI) and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) are often the most concerned issues in the design of all kinds of electrical connectors. Conventional USB connectors address the EMI and ESD problems of electrical connectors by way of establishing grounding paths through conductive braids of the electrical cables, conductive shells of mated cable end-complementary connectors, and printed circuit boards to which the complementary electrical connector is mounted.
When the speed of the signal transmission of the electrical connector (for example USB 2.0 connector made according to the Universal Serial Bus Specification Revision 2.0) is increased, the electrical connector is confronted with a more stringent requirement with respect to the EMI and the ESD and only the existing EMI path between the conductive braiding, the conductive shell and the printed circuit board can not match the need.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,771 issued on Aug. 25, 1998 discloses an electrical cable end connector comprising a printed circuit board therein. However, the printed circuit board therein does not address the problem we concern.
Therefore, an improved electrical cable end connector is desired.
A major object of the present invention is to provide an electrical cable end connector which incorporates a printed circuit board therein for improving the EMI and/or ESD shielding thereof.
An electrical cable end connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a pair of electrical connector components, an electrical cable, a pair of latches and a cover. Each of the electrical connector components comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of electrical contacts mounted to the insulative housing, a printed circuit board electrically connected with the electrical contacts and a conductive shell enclosing the insulative housing, the electrical contacts and the printed circuit board. The electrical cable comprises a plurality of electrical conductors respectively electrically connecting with the printed circuit boards of the electrical connector components to together with the insulative housing, the electrical contacts and the conductive shells constitute two separate electrical cable end connectors. The cover comprises symmetrical upper and lower cover members to receive the electrical connector components therebetween. The latches are retained in the cover and are electrically contacted with the conductive shells of the electrical connector components.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.